Position in chronology
NATN 856
Translation — curated editorial
EditorialEditorial entry — translation cited from: CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121553.
Transliteration
1(u) ur-i7#-da 7(disz) szesz-kal-la 7(disz) ur-szul-pa-e3 1(u) la2 1(disz@t) szu-ma-ma () 3(u) 3(disz) 1(u) ARAD2 e2-A#? () 4(u) 3(disz) la2-ia3 1(u) 7(disz) lu2 ur3-ra-me 5(u) 4(disz) erin2 muhaldim-me la2-ia3 6(disz) erin2 szunigin 1(gesz2) 3(u) 7(disz) erin2 szunigin la2-ia3 2(u) 3(disz) erin2
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NATN 856. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA (P121553) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from CDLI raw catalogue, no published translation. P-number P121553..
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.